Rule bender

Maybe you saw the story.

St. Cloud (Florida) football coach Bill Buldini is back on the job this week while a Florida High School Athletic Association investigation continues into allegations that the coach broke rules by allowing a homeless player to move in with him.

A Bulldogs assistant coach said it his understanding that the school self-reported the violation last week and is holding the player out of games while awaiting an FHSAA ruling.

Buldini was suspended by the Osceola County Schools district last Friday and did not coach in a 20-17 district loss to Edgewater that night. The district returned Buldini to the classroom and his coaching job on Monday, saying he had not violated any county policy.

The player’s name has not been released due to student confidentiality policies.

FHSAA rules state that student athletes may not live on a full- or part-time basis with any school employee, athletic staff member or representative of the school’s athletic interests.

One can only hope that Buldini truly was trying to help the player, but we live in such a cynical time that one never knows.

Someone helping someone else? OH, MY GOODNESS. Let's not get carried away, now.

The devastating Despora, the time in Babylon in which the Jews were confiscated like they were pets, had come. God said to the nation of Israel at the time, "Seek the Lord, all who are humble,and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly."

Seek to do what is right and to live humbly; that's a tall order but a successful formula for which we should strive.

Let's plan this weekend to attempt the near-impossible. This weekend, let's forget our failures, those times we tried to imitate those depraved acts and images. Instead, let's give ourselves over to Jesus and attempt to do the next good and right thing.

This thing we call life is not a morality play. It's not about keeping the rules. There is no reason to look up the Mosaic law in scripture and try to do every single bit of it, primarily because you can't anyway. Jesus took those 600-plus laws and allowed his blood to wash them away, as well as our sins.

Christ bore our sins. Let that sink deeply into our being, into our minds. Seek to do what is right, though not by playing by any rules. Rather, we are to seek to do right through God's strength.